About Haskell

The Town of Haskell  was established in 1904 in Indian Territory on the Midland Valley Railroad.  It was named for town site developer Charles N. Haskell,

who later became Oklahoma's first governor.

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Known as the "Queen City of the Arkansas Valley," the community boomed in its early days with cotton production and oil exploration.  Mr. T.J. Way, one of the pioneers of that section of the country, selected an 80 acre tract belonging to Amos Rolland, a full blood Creek, and petitioned the Secretary of the Interior to authorize Rolland to sell it for town site purposes.  After it was decided that 80 acres simply wasn't enough land, Mr. J.C. Scully helped obtain title to an adjoining tract that was also platted into town lots.  By August 23rd, 1905, there were a total of 240 acres of land included in the petition filed to incorporate the Town of Haskell.   On October 2, 1905, Judge G.W. Raymond signed the incorporation papers.

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Mr. Scully was also instrumental in helping to establish Haskell's first bank in 1904.  The Haskell National Bank was a simple tent back then, but within that year they built a brick structure.  By 1911, the name had been changed to the First Bank of Haskell.

S. Beshara and Brothers, two immigrants from Syria, opened the first store in a tent.  Haskell's first post office was established on June 20, 1904, with Mr. Nat Lambertson appointed postmaster by President Theodore Roosevelt.  Lambertson owned a small hardware store and became actively interested in the public affairs of the town where he was eventually elected as Haskell's second mayor.

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Oil tycoon J. Paul Getty drilled his first oil well near Haskell in 1916.  His Haskell well, the "Nancy Taylor No. 2," is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It is erected in the area that is a lost Creek Nation town site called "Concharty".  In the 1930's the town served as a hideout for the infamous bank robber Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd.